Machometus Dominicho “De Campo” 1422/3 -- ? ? ?
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Part One: Origins & The Fall of Constantinople
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Little is known of Machometus’ birth. Later Christian monastic translations have mentioned him or his family as being of Venetian or Genoese origins by way of his father, while contemporaneous Granadan accounts claim he was a native of that region and related by way of his mother to the ruling Nasrid’s. Later Islamic scholars of the Ottoman Empire deny this and claim instead that he was of Aragonese blood, but provide no further descriptions.
We know however from both Greek and Arabic texts that he was present in Constantinople during the final siege of the city by the Ottoman armies. He is said to have dated himself as either thirty two or thirty three years of age during an account of his time there, putting his birth sometime between the years of 1422 and 1423.
There are numerous semi-mythical stories surrounding the ascent and pre-history of Machometus Dominicho, (sometimes referred to as Machometus I). Common elements between different stories include his birth as the result of a union between a Catholic Knight of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, or Knights Hospitaller, and a Sunni Princess, sometimes of the Nasrid dynasty of the rulers of the Emirate of Granada, but also occasionally marked as a descendant of a disgraced lady of the long-ago vanquished Almohad Caliphate.
Additionally, it is almost unanimously agreed upon that he had inherited some great wealth, sometimes depicted as being spoils of the Fourth Crusade long ago hidden by his father’s family, but otherwise not explained or investigated, the reasons for which will soon become readily apparent.
Machometus’ first well-documented entrance into history is during an approximately seven month stay in Constantinople, he is listed in various Roman Imperial documents first as a foreign dignitary, initially appearing as Venetian diplomat, but eventually being found on a payroll detailing the expenses of the mercenary company of Giovanni Giustinianni, blessed defender of the City of Cities. Interestingly, he is not listed in several earlier company payrolls.
However, early on in his stay (probably by December 1452), it became apparent the Sultan Mehmed II was going to lay siege to the city, and while there was hope a relief force would arrive, the situation was not looking good. There have been several accounts of Machometus’ involvement in altercations, as well as payment of fines to avoid harsher punishments. However these incidents drop off sharply by March 1453.
By April, the Ottoman army had arrived and began to lay siege to the city. During this time Machometus is directly mentioned only once in any reports of the fighting at the walls, and according to popular tale this was due to having finally courted the favor of the Imperial Minister, Loukas Notaras. Most famously, it is said that Machometus’ had appealed to the corrupt Minister’s greed and fear of the loss of wealth should he survive the great siege and agreed to part ways with his impressive and hidden fortune in return for the closely guarded and secret recipe to greek fire. It is unknown what actually transpired, but while a direct amount is never officially named, several references to Notaras transporting gold and artifacts to the docks of the city are noted in the private journals of the soon-to-be-dead Imperial Nobility.
Machometus’ himself is only mentioned one more time during the siege, in a minor skirmish in the second week of May, but then disappears from any record entirely. One final note, there is a popular children’s story prevalent in Galata and much of Greco-Ottoman Rumelia today that describes Machometus’ alleged flight from the city. As the story goes, after having taken the secret of greek fire from Notaras (possibly by force), he ran to his lodgings in the North of the city, where he was blocked by a small group of marauding Jannisseries who then pursued him to docks and cornered him, where he may have killed one in single combat.
Nevertheless, by the next morning Loukas Notaras was dead and his fortunes, which may or may have contained Machometus’ fortunes, were forfeit to the Sultan. Machometus’ had swam or crossed the Golden Horn in a small boat and made his way first into Galata and then likely North, possibly to a Moldovian port.
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Part Two: The Secret of Fire
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Having somehow escaped or otherwise survived the fall of Constantinople, Machometus’ reenters the world stage four months later through the records of the Kingdom of Georgia, where he had gone North into the Darial Gorge, or as it is more appropriately called in its original Persian form “The Gate of the Alans” who, although greatly diminished in their numbers from their formers days as nomadic steppe tribes and allies of the great Germanic successor states to Rome, still occupied the lands immediate to and North of the gorge.
A more obscure Persian dramatic poem relates the poet as a travelling companion to Machometus who had apparently found him lying on the side of the road exhausted, after questioning him about his identity and purpose, to which he received no answers, he led Machometus to a local village to recuperate and perhaps learn his tale.
The poem then diverges from Machometu’s original path and details the poet’s many exploits before finding him again after he had been miraculously reinvigorated and had decided to...
A.) Go further North, to the lands of the steppe warriors and Rus. For these lands were crude and without honor, and he desired adventure to separate himself from past events.
B.) Continue East, to mountainous Persian Media along the Silk Road where he planned to rebuild his fortunes and successes.
C.) Turn back South, to the coastal regions of the Mamlukean Levant. There he might escape the cold desperation and hot violence of these tribal lands.
D.) Stay another month at the local tavern, for the Alans were a hardy folk and full of life and stories, and he greatly desired to put down roots.
Stolen Greek Fire Recipe
Lost Wealth
Author
Topic: The Secret of Fire: A Renaissance Adventure -- Interactive Alt-History Thing (Read 506 times)